


Brotherly Distaste

by TheWitchiestBitch



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Warnings by chapter, background remile, familial lampd, foster family AU, sympathetic deceit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-07 13:37:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16854985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWitchiestBitch/pseuds/TheWitchiestBitch
Summary: Patton always wanted to be a dad. Raising four boys is not as easy as it looks, and all of them are just a little bit broken.This will be posted in drabbles out of chronological order.





	1. Secure

Patton whistled along to the music coming from the television as he scrubbed at the dishes. The sun rays fell through the window and onto his face perfectly; it was a beautiful day!

“VIRGIL! Get back here, you little brat!”

Patton sighed and put the plate and sponge down, drying his hands on the dish towel next to the sink. He had better go see what that was about. “Be right back, Dee,” he said out of habit. The toddler on the couch just babbled at him in reply, and his oldest foster kid, Logan, went to sit next to Dee.

As Patton reached the top of the stairs, a blur of purple and black as high as his waist darted past him and thundered down the steps. Roman was running toward him, so Patton put his hands out to stop him.

“Hey, now, Ro. What happened?” Patton asked patiently. 

“He used my nail polish without asking!”

Patton frowned. “Well, we'll go talk to him. But Roman, you're twelve years old; you're the big brother, so please don't resort to violence. Alright?”

Ro nodded, relaxing a little.

Patton grinned. “There's my sweet boy. Come on.”

He took Roman's hand (even though Roman often claimed to be too old for such things, he found it comforting) and walked back down the stairs with him. “Virgil. Come here please,” he called out, gentle but firm. Nothing. And, of course, Logan's nose was buried in a book. 

So, Patton leaned down in front of Dee. “Hey, Kiddo. Can you tell me where Virgil went?”

“Not in the closet!” Dee replied helpfully. 

Patton grinned as he heard from the broom closet, “You little snitch!”

Patton walked over to the closet and opened the door, looking down at the six-year-old with a raised brow. 

Virgil shoved his hands behind his back, steadfastly looking downwards.

“Kiddo,” Patton said gently, “don't you want to apologize to your brother?”

Virgil bit his lip and nodded, so Patton stepped out of the way to let him. Still looking down, Virgil stepped forward and mumbled out, “I'm sorry…”

Roman pulled him into a hug, causing him to let out a small squeak of surprise. “It's okay,” Roman said. “Just  _ ask _ next time. I'll even help you paint your nails.”

“Aw!” Patton exclaimed.

There was the sound of a book snapping shut, and everyone turned and watched as Logan stood.

“If you're done with all…  _ that _ –”

Roman interrupted with an indignant squeak.

“Da– Um… Patton. I would like to speak with you.”

Patton's brow furrowed and a frown appeared on his face as Logan stopped himself from calling him Dad. 

Logan stood about two inches taller than Patton. He would be eighteen in three days. 

“My birthday is coming up,” he said slowly. “I just got my college acceptance letter last week. I was, um… Well, you see… I don't know where to go until college–”

Patton started to laugh. 

Logan frowned. “What, pray tell, is so funny?”

“S-sorry,” Patton breathed, wiping at his eyes. “It's just… Well… I was going to wait until our dinner tonight but… I've got the paperwork all filled out to adopt you, Lo-Lo.”

Logan's eyes widened. “Wha–Really?!” Roman cheered, and Dee began babbling delightedly. Virgil stayed quiet, but moved forward to hug Logan's leg. Suddenly, they were all swept up in a group hug. 

Then, Patton said something that made everyone go quiet with awe: “The rest of you, too. I'm adopting all of you, after I've got Logan all sorted.”

There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

When their neighbors, Dr. Emile Picani and his husband, Remy, walked in that night to go out to their special dinner with them, they found the family curled up on the couch. 

“Looks like he went ahead and told 'em,” Remy observed. 

Emile just gave a soft “Aaaawww!” and pulled the blanket from the armchair over all of them. 

When the couple left, they left behind a family that finally felt secure. And it was wonderful.


	2. The Things That Brought Us Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has things they carry with them. (Ways they are broken, and the way they are alright).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one’s pretty heavy, it goes over everyone’s backstories very simply.  
> mentions of abuse (mental and implied physical abuse), housefire mentioned, minor character death, mentions of nightmares

They all carried the remnants of their past. 

Dee's was the burn scar that covered about a quarter of his face on the left side, along with his neck and shoulder, and must of his upper arm. He got it in the fire that killed his parents, which was ruled arson, but for which no one was arrested or even accused. 

Virgil's was the slight wince when someone moved toward him too quickly, the nights he woke up crying and couldn't be comforted until he physically saw one of the few people he trusted. His scars were not physical, but were caused by the same people who had died in the fire that caused Dee's.

Roman's was the nasty taste in his mouth when he looked in the mirror, the desire to scream when he looked at his stretch marks, the careful counting of calories. He watched his and Logan's mother waste away, heard her tell them too many times that they couldn't eat certain things, and it stayed with him.

Logan's was the swallowing down of his emotions, the bottling up of any feeling until he broke and lashed out. He didn't want to be his parents, the people who absolutely tortured his little brother, and himself to a lesser extent, the people who would always get so angry at any little thing. 

Patton's was the prosthetic he had to put on every morning, the slightly uneven way he had of walking. It was the years in physical therapy after his legal guardian, drunken and angry, had shot him in the leg with buckshot when he was a teenager, which mangled everything so badly that infection and loss of the limb was practically inevitable. 

They were all imperfect, and all healing. But that was okay. They could do it together, as a FamILY.


	3. An Ice Cream Kinda Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan gets in trouble at school
> 
> Small warning for bullying mentions

Patton raised an eyebrow, shifting from holding a 10-month-old Dee on one hip to the other as he pinned his phone between his shoulder and his ear. “Of course, yes, I'll be right there.”

Dee reached towards his face, and he gave the toddler a smile.

“Alright, ‘bye,” he ended the conversation, hanging up the phone.

“Okie-dokie, DeeDee,” Patton proclaimed, trying not to let the concern seep into his voice, “looks like we need to swing by your big brother's school for a bit.” He looked over to where Virgil was sat on the kitchen floor playing with a puzzle. “Come on, Virgil, we need to go see Logan.”

Virgil perked up at that, the puzzle forgotten as he stood and reached for Patton's hand. Pat quickly slipped his phone into his pocket so he could take the four-year-old's hand, then walked them to the car.

Securing Dee and Virgil into their carseats always proved to be the hardest part of driving them anywhere. Today, though, they seemed to sense some tension Patton didn't know he'd let on about, and they were oddly compliant. Not that Patton was complaining.

It was as he began to drive that he let the worry overtake him. He'd gotten calls from Roman's school, sure, but not Logan's.  _ Is Logan in trouble? Did he break some sort of rule? That doesn't sound like him… Oh, dear heavens, what if he's hurt?! _

He was shaken from these thoughts when the car behind him honked their horn, and he jumped. The light had turned green. Unfortunately, the loud noise had startled Virgil. 

He began to cry, which invariably would make Dee cry, so Patton sighed and pulled into a parking lot just as both of them broke into full-on wails. 

Pat parked and got out, going first to Virgil's side of the car. Usually, if he could get Virgil to stop, Dee would too. He carefully extricated him from his car seat and pulled him into his arms, then began pacing with a slight bounce in his step. “Shhh, Virgil, it's okay, you're okay, I'm here… Deep breaths, okay? Breathe with me…” Patton began taking deep breaths, humming softly to calm the toddler. 

It took maybe three minutes for Virgil to stop crying and fall asleep. As Patton placed him gently back in his car seat and caringly buckled him in, he breathed a sigh of relief and ran his hands over his face. Dee was still whimpering and squirming in his seat, but he had calmed some and was continuing to do so. 

Patton grabbed tissues and cleaned up both of the boys faces, took a few more deep breaths, and got back in the driver's seat. 

When he finally got to the school, his two youngest were both sound asleep in the backseat. He decided to go ahead and detach Dee's baby-carrier-carseat from the seat of the car, carrying that with one hand and holding Virgil in the opposite arm. It was a hassle getting in, but soon he had made it into the school office.

Logan sat in a chair in the corner, hands shoved in his jacket pockets and head down. He looked up for only a moment before shifting his gaze back to the floor. 

Patton sighed, glanced at Remy, who happened to be the school secretary, apologetically. Remy waved him on with a smile, and Patton went over to Logan. “Would you mind holding Virgil for a second, Sweetheart?” 

Logan looked surprised, confused, and somewhat relieved. Patton's eyes and tone of voice said  _ I'm not mad at you. _ It wasn't what Logan was expecting, but he was grateful as he took Virgil from him. 

Virgil snuggled into Logan's chest, still asleep, as Patton went over to Remy.

“What happened?” he asked quietly as Remy passed him a visitor's form to fill out. He set Dee's baby carrier down at his feet and began to fill it out.

“I wouldn't worry too much, Pat,” Remy answered. 

Patton sighed softly, but just nodded in response and changed the subject. “Will you take Dee while I talk to Emile, then?” 

Remy chuckled and held out his arms in response. “Of course I'll hold the baby. He's like, practically my nephew.” 

Patton laughed along with him, put a bit more at ease. 

That was when Emile Picani poked his head out of his office, waving at Patton. “Hey, Pat.”

“Hi, Emile,” Patton said, giving him a somewhat strained smile. Logan turned away from both his foster parent and his school counselor, hugging Virgil a little closer to his chest.

Emile beckoned, and Patton followed him into his office, sitting down on the soft fluffy couch across from Emile's rolly chair. His shoulders were tense until Emile gave him an understanding smile.

“You're gonna be so proud, Pat,” said Emile. “I know that Virgil's hearing problem was only just addressed. Logan was standing up for a hard of hearing classmate who some other kids were picking on.”

Fire flashed in Patton's eyes, but Emile held a hand up. 

“The situation did end up turning physical. It seems he has some pent-up anger. Like Zuko.” Here, Patton nodded understandingly. “The other kids are being suspended, but this is Logan's first offense and–” Emile leaned in conspiratorially, “he was in the right here. I'm just going to give him a day of detention, nothing that will go on his permanent record, alright?”

Patton relaxed again and nodded. “Thanks, Emile.”

“It's what I'd do for any of my kids. I think you should take him home for the rest of today. I'll write a note to excuse the absence, and you can just take him home and let him cool down some.”

Patton smiled and stood, then pulled Emile into a hug as soon as he was standing as well. “I expect to see you and Remy at our house for dinner tomorrow night,” Patton chided playfully as he pulled away.

Emile grinned. “Wouldn't miss it for the world.”

************

Logan shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat, glancing back at the two boys asleep in their carseats.

“Logan?”

Logan winced. “Yes, Patton...?”

Patton sighed, but didn't tell him again that he could call him Dad. “I'm not mad at you.”

Logan seemed slightly surprised at that, yet again. “You're not…?”

Patton shook his head, wanting to look over at Logan, but instead keeping his eyes on the road. “I'm a little disappointed you got in a fight, but I'm proud of you for standing up for the other kid, okay?”

The corner of Logan's lip twitched up, just slightly. “Alright.”

Patton smiled. “Now, do you want some ice cream? It's just an ice cream kinda day.”

Logan laughed. “I am inclined to agree with you.”


	4. Home for the Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When it snows, Logan's flight home from college is delayed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written with Prompt 1: Snow Day for the Sanders Sides Holiday Month prompt list by @sanderssidescelebrations on Tumblr.

Virgil loved his baby brother. He really did. But not when Dee woke him up by jumping on top of him. 

“Ugh- Ah! Dee-Dee…!” he groaned, trying to push him off. 

“‘S not snowing, not snowing!” Dee exclaimed excitedly. 

Virgil sat up at that, Dee tumbling onto the mattress next to him. “It's snowing?!” he asked urgently. 

Dee nodded, enthused.

Virgil jumped out of bed, his too-big pajamas nearly tangling his limbs, and darted from the room, Dee following not far behind.

Into Roman's room they went, clambering onto his bed to shake him awake with chants of, “Snow! Snow!” Roman groaned just as Virgil had and pulled the covers over his head. 

Dee continued climbing all over Roman in an attempt to wake him up, but Virgil glimpsed the window and fell silent. He walked over to the window and laid his arms flat on the windowsill to rest his chin on them. 

It was nearly pure white outside. Snowflakes drifted down at a leisurely pace, collecting on the lawn and the road and Patton's car and the mailbox and Dee's tricycle. Icicles hung from the edges of the roof and the porch, and frost decorated the edges of the window. Virgil could feel the cold radiating from the glass even without touching it. He sighed happily, then turned back to Roman's bed. “RoRo? Wanna make snow forts?”

Roman cracked an eye open at that, then sat up. Next to him, Dee clapped and giggled.

Roman grinned, but after a few moments his face fell. “What about Logan's flight?”

Virgil turned to look at them, a frown forming on his face as Dee stopped giggling. “D'you think it'll get delayed?” Virgil asked quietly.

Roman fumbled for his (pretty much brand new) cell phone on his bedside table and grabbed it as soon as he found it. He found Logan's contact entry and tapped the call button. 

The two youngest brothers waited patiently.

“Hey, Lo!” Roman said after a few moments. “So, it's snowing here, and we were wondering–… Oh… Oh, okay. Well, we'll see you whenever you can get here, I guess… Yeah, bye, Lo. Love you.” Roman put down the phone with a big sigh. “Better wake Dad up and tell him Logan's not gonna get here today.”

Tears welled up in Dee's eyes, and Virgil swooped in quickly to hug him. It was easier to not be too upset by the news himself if he was comforting Dee, who had now begun to sniffle.

A couple minutes later, Roman came back into his room, Patton shuffling along behind him to pick up Dee. There was a hint of sadness on Patton's face, even as he smiled and said cheerfully, “Let's have some breakfast! Chocolate chip pancakes sound good?”

Dee nodded in response, his sniffling coming to a halt and his tears subsiding. Virgil grabbed on to Patton's free hand, and together they all walked downstairs.

\-------------------------

It was after breakfast when Patton suggested they play in the snow. Virgil and Roman weren't exactly enthused, too disappointed to really want to play, but it was a good way to distract Dee. So, for Dee's sake more than their own, Virgil and Roman were bundled up and went outside to play with their little brother, followed shortly by Patton with even more layers to keep them warm. 

They only stopped to eat, but other than that kept playing to distract themselves the whole day. Patton stayed outside with them some, too. It would have been a perfect day, had Logan been there.

\-------------------------

Virgil was curled up on the couch under a blanket that Patton had knitted. He rested against Patton's side, Roman against Patton's other side, and Dee fast asleep on Patton's lap. All of them were getting close to drifting off, having eaten dinner and warmed up from their day outside.

The front door lock clicked, and the door swung open, revealing Logan, tightly bundled up so as not to worry Patton. 

Virgil and Roman both shot off the couch and towards Logan, jostling and waking Dee. As Dee and Patton we're getting up, Roman and Virgil ran right into Logan and hugged him tightly. 

“Lo!” Roman cried. “How'd you get here?”

“I took a train,” Logan replied simply, scooping Dee up into his arms when Dee got to him. 

Patton pulled them all on to a brief, warm hug, then pulled away to get all his boys completely inside the house and close the door. “Come warm up by the fire, LoLo. I'll make hot chocolate.”

The corner of Logan's mouth twitched upwards slightly. “Thank you, Dad.”

Patton gave him another quick hug. “I missed you. You have to tell me all about college, okay?” 

“Okay.”

Virgil and Roman pulled Logan over to the couch, only pausing to let Logan shed his winter outerwear.

\-------------------------

That night, they all fell asleep there in the living room after catching up. And if Logan spent the next day playing in the snow with his dad and his brothers… well, no one had to know.


	5. Let It Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys have never seen snow, and Patton decides this will be the best winter ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Patton has a prosthetic in this au, and I think that's it for this chapter

Logan had only seen snow once. He had been clinging to his mother as she held him on her hip and talked to her sister on the phone about how much she hated being a mother and a wife. But all Logan could look at was the window, where snowflakes drifted past. Of course, Logan didn't get to play in it.

Roman was born not long after. He'd missed the only snow either of the brothers ever saw.

Virgil and Dee were both born in southern Florida. No snow for them either. 

It was their first winter with Patton when Patton discovered that this would be, really, his boys’ first snow. 

“You've never seen snow?” he asked Virgil, who just looked at him, bewildered. 

“I doubt he would remember it, if he had,” Logan answered for the three-year-old.

“I haven't!” Roman said, his gaze fixed on the movie, _Frosty the Snowman_. “I wanna build a snowman!” he declared before gasping and amending, “No! A Snow Prince!”

Dee looked up from where he wiggled around on his playmat, attempting to escape the long-sleeved jumpsuit with attached baby mittens that he had been trapped in, hearing Roman's excitement. He cooed, reaching for Roman, who laughed and crouched next to the baby.

Patton turned to Logan, absently keeping an arm behind Virgil so he wouldn't fall as the toddler practically climbed him. “And you, Logan?” 

“I have never played in the snow.”

Patton clapped his hands together, grinning. “That settles it! We are going to build the best snowman– Snow Prince– and a snow fort, and we'll have a snowball fight, and– ahhhh, you boys are going to have so much fun!”

Virgil didn't look like he quite understood, but he smiled because even Logan seemed intrigued, and Roman was jumping up and down happily.

And Logan hummed. As new as this situation still was, Patton was seeming less and less bad by the minute.

\-------------------------

The problem was that it didn't snow. And didn't snow. Roman asked when the snow was coming nearly every day. 

In the meantime, Patton was getting his boys really and truly settled. Their rooms were starting to seem more like their rooms and not just temporary places they were staying. Patton had painted the final room and moved the furniture back in the week before Christmas. Logan's room had been made a cool blue, and Patton had helped him pick out a desk and a bookshelf. Roman had wanted his room to be red, but they agreed on doing just one wall red and the rest a bright yellow. Virgil had pointed to a muted purple color, so that was the color of his room. And Patton had settled on a brighter yellow for Dee's nursery, but Dee was sleeping in a crib in Virgil's room for now.

Logan had said his room was satisfactory. Roman loved his plush bed and the canopy above it, and he'd already begun to decorate one of the yellow walls with crayon drawings on any scrap of paper he could get his hands on. Virgil seemed perfectly happy with his room, but…

Well, Virgil still wasn't talking. He was three and a half, but he hadn't said a single word other than the occasional “no.”

Patton's insecurity was telling him he was already doing something wrong, but his degree in early childhood growth and development was telling him there was something else wrong. 

So Patton scheduled a doctor's appointment. But for now, they were just going to enjoy their holiday. He could worry about Virgil in January. But these boys were going to have the best goshdarn Christmas ever, and it was  _ going  _ to snow, even if he had to make a deal with the devil. 

\-------------------------

It was Christmas Eve. Patton knew that the moment he awoke. First, he rushed to the window. No snow. Then he checked the forecast. Nothing. 

He sighed heavily and made to walk to the kitchen. Okay. No real snow. But he'd make crepes with confectioners’ sugar, and that was almost as good, right? 

Well, not really. Roman was looking more and more disappointed.

\-------------------------

When Patton woke on Christmas morning, it was to the sound of Virgil screaming. Not in an excited way. In a panicky, distressed way. He grabbed his prosthetic leg and put it on quicker than he ever had before, bare foot and hard prosthetic pounding against the cold floor as he rushed to find Virgil.

Virgil was not in his room. Patton grabbed Dee, who was now wailing, from his crib in Virgil's room and rushed to find Virgil. Virgil was found, not in his room, but in Logan's, at the window, having a complete meltdown. 

He was on the floor, curled up, screaming and bawling. Logan was just standing up.

Patton plopped the crying Dee into the arms of a still bleary Logan and scooped Virgil up, holding him close and bouncing him gently. “I'm here, I'm here, Virgil, nothing can hurt you, I'm right here.” Patton spotted what had triggered what was probably hysteria in the child just as Logan managed to quiet Dee. “Snow,” he whispered, too quiet for anyone to hear with Virgil still screaming. He turned to Logan, a bright smile on his face despite his concern. “It snowed last night!” he exclaimed. 

Virgil quieted at that, looking up at Patton as he tried to rub the tears away. “'nowed?”

Patton nodded enthusiastically, about to answer when Roman plodded into the room, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Wha's happen’?” he asked. 

“Snow,” answered Logan, voice too loud, full of awe.

“Ssssssnow!” Virgil repeated, prompting Roman to grin at him.

“You talked!” exclaimed Roman.

Virgil buried his face in Patton's shoulder. 

Patton was grinning from ear to ear. “What do you boys want to do first? Open Christmas presents, or play in the snow?”

“Snow!” shouted Roman. 

“I concur,” Logan stated as Dee babbled what could have been an agreement had Dee been older. 

Virgil didn't answer, but Patton didn't mind that too much. He'd spoken more just now than Patton expected from him.

“That settles it!” said Patton. “You two bundle yourselves up in the coats and hats and gloves and such we bought, okay? I'll get the little ones dressed.”

With that, Logan handed Dee over for Patton to hold with his free arm, and everyone but Logan scattered to get dressed. 

\-------------------------

When Patton watched the wonderment in each of his boy's eyes (even Virgil's) as they watched the snow fall, he could've sworn his heart broke for them and melted back together all at the same time. He smoothed down Dee's puffy coat and adjusted his hold on the eight-month-old. Two months in, and he wasn't doing half bad. This was the best Christmas he'd had in a long, long time, and his boys seemed to be having a pretty darn good time, too. 

In the years to come, a picture of their Snow Prince would decorate the Christmas tree, a reminder of the first good Christmas in a string of many.


End file.
